January 28


Amber pages



1807: First street to be lighted by gas lamps (Pall Mall, London); I am sitting in a Pret A Manger on Pall Mall, right where it becomes Trafalgar Square, as I write this, the National Gallery on my left, Canada House in front of me, and not a gas light left anywhere, not even a museumpiece for the benefit of tourists wanting selfies like the telephone booth facing Big Ben in Parliament Square; the whole place lit up by sodium lights 


1871: France surrendered in the Franco-Prussian War


1890: Prudence Crandall, teacher... no, that is not sufficient: pioneering educator, the first white person, male or female, to take a stand for the education of "black people", and boy did they hate her and ruin her for daring to do so... her death today, but very much still alive in my novel "A Journey In Time".


And I don't like doing death-days, as noted elsewhere, unless the death was itself in some way significant; birth-days are much better.

So:


José Martí, the third great figure behind the Cuban revolution (the Castro brothers of course the other two), born today in 1853


Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, French novelist, born today in 1873


Artur Rubinstein, pianist, composer, conductor, born today in 1889


Jackson Pollock, artist of the aesthetic cardiogram, born today in 1912


Susan Sontag, human being, person of outstanding intelligence, writer, born today in 1933





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